Tideland Signal Lights Sandy Neck Lighthouse

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Tideland Signal is proud to have worked with the Sandy Neck Lighthouse Committee, supplying them with a new ML-300 SolaChan and MaxiHALO-60 LED light source to bring the Sandy Neck Lighthouse back to life. First constructed in 1857, the Sandy Neck Lighthouse is located on the Sandy Neck Peninsula, just over eight miles away from Cape Cod Canal, a major artery for outgoing and incoming ocean tonnage.

Decommissioned by the United States Coast Guard in 1932, a restoration committee was formed in 2004 with the aim of restoring the lighthouse in time for its 150th birthday. After years of hard work, the Sandy Neck Lighthouse Restoration Committee raised enough money to restore the Lantern Room, reopening it in 2007 using an optic with a 4 nautical mile visual range.

For the Committee however, this wasn’t enough. They wanted to replace the optic with one that would increase the power of the lighthouse in order that ocean going vessels going through or entering into the Cape Cod Canal could utilise the lighthouse to triangulate their positions. They continued with their project, and by 2010 had raised enough money, much of it from personal donations, to purchase a new optic.

The new optic they chose for this job was ML-300 SolaChan assembly, supplied by Tideland Signal Corporation of Houston, Texas.

The lantern is lit by Tideland’s MaxiHALO-60 LED light source and is powered with a pedestal mounted solar and battery system. The new optic has a visual range of over 9 nautical miles, meaning the lighthouse can finally be used as the Restoration Committee had intended.

The lighthouse is now classified as a private aid to navigation and is listed as such with the United States Coast Guard.